The illiteracy rate in this country is alarming. The percentage of school children experiencing academic problems associated with poor reading skills is high. Adults encounter difficulties in reading concentration. Overall, there is an urgent need to improve reading fluency throughout the whole population.
In order to read and comprehend fluently, a person must first suppress everything except the material desired to be presented for neurological decoding. When the eye sees, however, in addition to focusing on the material being read, unfocused peripheral images are present which have to be ignored. The suppression of unwanted material, such as shapes in the room and lines of text above and below the text being read, consumes needless energy. Moreover, such blurred perceptions from the peripheral regions of the field of view interfere with the reading of the primary focused region subject matter.
It might first appear that using physical barriers to restrict the field of view of vision to just the focused text would increase concentration and, thus, comprehension. However, the opposite might well be true. The eye's natural response to blocking lighted portions of its field of view is to crave light. Moreover, reducing peripheral vision by blocking light can cause claustrophobic reactions and headaches. It is also known that a person's general feeling of well-being may be adversely affected by reducing total illumination intensity.